Karnataka: As CM HDK Scrambles For Loan Waiver Funds, Over Rs 6,000 Crore Yet To Be Collected In Local Taxes

As the state government is finding ways to generate resources for the farm loan waivers, the local bodies are yet to collect Rs 6,000 crore as taxes, which are in turn to be paid to the state government, the New Indian Express has reported.

The taxes are to be collected from mobile towers, windmills, private power plants among others. The report states that out of 10,671 mobile towers in the state, taxes have been collected only for 3,159 towers. It has also stated that no tax has been collected by the local bodies in Chamarajanagara district on any of the 348 towers.

“Though government estimates that pending tax collection in excess of Rs 6,000 crore, it could easily be twice the number if all properties are verified and taxed accordingly,” Kota Sreenivas Poojary, opposition leader in Legislative Council was quoted to have said.

Between 2015-16 and 2017-18, the government has only collected Rs 767.21 crore, which is approximately 21.5 per cent of the total tax demand of Rs 3,566.88 crore.

Out of the total 6,239 private educational institutions, only 2,141 institutions have been taxed. Similarly out of the total 3,004 OFC (Optical Fibre Cables) lines, only 343 have been taxed.

Economic Survey 2017 had pointed out to the failure of authorities to collect property taxes in Bengaluru. It had estimated that the authorities have a potential of collecting up to four to seven times the property revenue collected presently.